Apple, SK Telecom to unveil LTE-A iPhone 5S

Summary:The South Korean telco is reportedly in talks with Apple to put its LTE Advanced technology in the upcoming iPhone 5S. This follows last week's launch of the Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A, the first to take advantage of the network.

SK Telecom and Apple are expected to unveil an LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) phone in the coming months.

SK Telecom and Apple are expected to unveil an LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) phone in the coming months.

An SK Telecom executive who declined to be named told The Korea Times on Monday the telco was approaching Apple to put its LTE-A technology on the upcoming iPhone 5S and "are in the middle of negotiations".

The South Korean telco also said it planned to have as many as seven LTE-A devices by the end of the year. LTE-A allows users to download at speeds of up to 150 Mbps, twice as fast as LTE.

Since South Korea has seen a large demand for devices supporting high-speed networks, Apple intends to use the country as the litmus test to gauge the marketability of LTE-A technology before making inroads into China, industry sources told the news site.

"There's no reason for Apple not to use the LTE-A technology," the SK executive said.

Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S4 LTE-A launched last week, being the first device to take advantage of SK Telecom's new technology for faster data transmission speeds. It is expected to be by six other LTE-A handsets by the end of the year.

Elly grew up on the adrenaline of crime fiction and it spurred her interest in cybercrime, privacy and the terror on the dark side of IT. At ZDNet Asia, she has made it her mission to warn readers of upcoming security threats, while also covering other tech issues.